Gary Drew, 39, who has worked at Generation Travel for nearly two decades, said: “I’ve been here for almost 19 years and we’ve seen nothing like this before.

“We don’t know how many times they targeted us because there could have been occasions where they were scared off.

“We first realised something was up after finding empty diesel cans lying around.

“We thought that it was just a one-off but then it got a lot worse.”

Gary Drew from Generation Travel in Stokesley which suffered thousands of pounds worth of damage during the theft of diesel from his fleet of buses

Around 2,650 litres of diesel worth £3,000 were siphoned with hoses by the thieves but Mr Drew estimates the overall damage to be almost £4,000 after fuel caps were snapped off and fences damaged in attempts to get into the business.

The company, which had nine coaches, had to stop leaving fuel in vehicles overnight and had to pay for extra security and for employees to stay at the compound.

Mr Drew, who lives in Guisborough, said: “More security had to be put on and people were working longer shifts.

“There was substantial damage to the outer fence which cost a lot to be fixed and two buses broke down and there are still a lot of things to repair.”

He added: “They were jailed but they got the most they could have done which isn’t very long.

“It will just take time to get things back to normal and there’s only so much we can do. Until then we are basically a sitting duck.”

Two 20-year-old men from Eston admitted stealing diesel and a third man, aged 24, admitted handling stolen goods. They were jailed at Teesside Crown Court for a total of more than four years.